The Force Is With Acclaimed Scientist

May 24, 1992|By Julie Hutchinson.

BOULDER, COLO. — With her induction into the National Academy of Sciences this month, Susan Solomon became the youngest current member of the federal government`s official advice-giving panel on science and technology.

The 36-year-old chemist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder has been piling up ``firsts`` ever since she graduated at the top of her class from Chicago`s Von Steuben High School in 1973.

``I`ve wanted to be a scientist since I was about 10 years old and I watched Jacques Cousteau on TV,`` says Solomon, a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology who later earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Her research into the proliferation of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere, and how it contributes to the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic, brought Solomon acclaim earlier this year in the form of a $25,000 award from the Common Wealth Trust, a private endowment fund in Delaware.

Solomon is 17 years younger than the average age of academy members-53. Only four other women were among the 59 scientists admitted to life-long, unpaid, membership this year. The board has 1,651 voting members.

Solomon says she can`t ``ever recall in my entire career any significant discrimination as far as being female.`` But she says success in science requires a personal style that can be a struggle for many.

``There is a successful science presentation style that requires a person to be extremely analytical and at the same time extremely forceful and at the same time extremely dispassionate,`` Solomon says. ``Not a lot of men can do those three things well, either. But to be forceful for most women is an emotional act because it`s not a normal way for them to be. It has become the standard to which scientists have to conform in order to really get ahead in the game. To get things like admission to the academy.``